For the life of me I can't get away from those damn Skulls as they destroy my vehicle or kill me and the checkpoint is a bag of shit when I fail.

63 hours played in all so far mostly spent trying to complete all objectives in main/side missions. How many missions are there exactly?

IIRC: Destroy the truck that you need to take out with a triggered explosive of some kind, but do not destroy the armour accompanying it. As the truck is destroyed, hit the deck and crawl to one of the armoured vehicles, either will do. Get in, and unleash merry hell on the Skulls. Keep moving, stay still and they will take you out, but keep moving and you can kill them - which doesn't count against your final stats, indeed I think it adds to them.

Hmmmmm. Half thinking a replay of this might be in order. I don't know how far I got but isn't there some duplication of missions or something later on that makes up a fair proportion of the total gameplay.

So I have been dabbling with this again of late, replaying it, and today gets a special mention for going above and beyond in game terms.

I am off work today as it is my birthday and I figured that was reason enough to take a day's leave. Playing a little MGS and on completing a side mission, I get a message to RTB urgently. The game takes me back to base, upon which Snake gets wishes a happy birthday, with a whole extended cutscene, elements of which are really nicely done. I won't spoil it in case anyone has not seen it, but it is a really nice touch that I have not seen any other game do, ever.